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© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Different fashions of the Nintendo Switch are seen on show in a GameStop in Manhattan, New York, U.S., December 7, 2021. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File Photo
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By Sam Nussey
TOKYO (Reuters) -Nintendo on Tuesday raised its full-year Switch (NYSE:) gross sales forecast to fifteen.5 million models from 15 million models beforehand, as the corporate squeezed gross sales out of the ageing console over the year-end purchasing season.
With the hybrid home-portable Switch nearing its eighth yr available on the market, expectations are rising that Nintendo will launch new {hardware} this yr.
“We want to maintain the momentum of the Switch business,” Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa informed an earnings briefing.
The Kyoto-based gaming firm bought 13.74 million Switch models within the first 9 months of the monetary yr, an 8% decline on the identical interval a yr earlier.
The lifecycle of the Switch has been prolonged by a string of hits akin to “The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom”, which launched final May, and “Super Mario Bros. Wonder”, which went on sale in October and has bought greater than 10 million models.
The Switch, whose iterations embody the hand held solely Switch Lite and a model with an OLED show, adopted the poorly performing Wii U and has complete gross sales second solely to the Nintendo DS handheld after passing the Wii.
Nintendo reported a report web revenue of 408 billion yen for the April-December interval.
“There will be new Switch games for a while for sure, considering the current model’s massive install base,” stated Serkan Toto, founding father of recreation trade consultancy Kantan Games, who expects a successor system to launch later this yr priced at round $400.
Nintendo shares closed down 0.5% forward of earnings and have gained 14% year-to-date.